What in your option is the cream of the crop pistol brass.

[jeeptim]

Hey fellas.
I gotta get rid of some brass. I have a 5gal bucket just about full of brass I don't yet reload for. but one day will, this bucket contains 9mm and 40 cal mix headstamp.
I figure I want to keep only the best quality or dose it really matter with straight wall cases.
I reload a ton of rifle and have found what is the best for me to reload.
Let me know what you think, or should I judt pick a brand name and keep 1k of that?
Merry Christmas.

 

[SharpsDressedMan]

Any that you get for free at the range.

 

[rcmodel]

I'd get rid of the thin-wall Remington, and any A-Merc that shows it's ugly head!!
And any lead free with crimped primer-pockets.

rc

 

[sauer1911]

Only been reloading for a short time. But it seems that 95%+ of the brass I collect is usable.

The thin walls seem to collapse when trying to reload, and the crimped primers wont re prime when I try, so I toss them. I do sort out 9,40, and .45 (then small and large primer) but dont really know enough about all the different stamps to recognize subpar stuff just yet.

In a perfect world, I would love Starline brass all day long.

 

[[email protected]]

A-Merc is the only one that comes to mine as not worth picking up, but then again there is the cash value of brass so let me change that to worth reloading. I like Remington (RP) headstamp for lead loads due to the thinner brass. I am also strange that I like FC brass. Well my department used federal ammo for training and that is the brass I can easly get for the right price. We recently switched over to Winchester ammo so you can only imagine how much my mouth watered when the ammo arrived. This tells you what my favorite brass is. I also like the WCC headstamp for 9mm, only because it has crimped primers and I know for sure if it is once fired. I have bought "once fired" brass that the primer looks like it was flowing like water, go figure.
The biggest thing is that you said that you dont reload for YET. Unless you need the cash I would say keep all of it. I cant tell how many times I had gotten rid of somthing in this HOBBY/ADDICTION only to find a use for it later. I traded away alot of 308 win brass two years ago since I didnt have a 308 win rifle and didnt forsee me getting one. Well I currently have a 308 win rifle in my safe.

 

[KansasSasquatch]

I personally don't like Winchester pistol brass but I'm probably in the minority on that. Federal, PMC, and WCC are my favorites. Herters isn't bad but it doesn't seem to last as long as the others with full power loads, case mouth splits become common. Starline is great if you find any of that, but be careful with range pickup Starline, it probably isn't once fired.

 

[jstein650]

It seems to depend on the round in question, oddly enough. My experience with the 9mm says it doesn't really matter much, with the exception of A-Merc; which is not good. I've done probably the most reloading with .38 spcl., in which case, IMI (Israeli Military Industries) is by far the best - unless it's changed. Whatever Cor-Bon uses (it is marked as such) is also very good. My experience with 9mm and 45 acp has only taught me that there's not a big difference, except for MagTech brass. It's marked CBC, and the headstamp gets ironed out after, like 2 loadings, but the brass still seems to reload just fine (at least in .45, which is pretty low pressure anyway).

 

[Swampman]

A-Merc!

Just kidding!

I honestly haven't noticed a whole lot of difference with straight wall pistol brass if you keep 'em separated by headstamp so that whatever you're loading has consistent case wall thickness.

The ones that have caused problems for me are:

A-Merc - All around crap (yes, after pitching them for years, I actually tried loading a few, they load every bit as bad as they look).

S&B - Tight primer pockets.

PMC - Off center flash holes.

Any crimped 9mm.*


*Life is WAY too short to waste decrimping 9mm cases (I'm reasonably sure that .40 S&W, 38 Special and 9mm Parabellum cases breed and reproduce on their own).

 

[oneounceload]

If I am buying it - Starline
If I am scrounging it - anything not steel/Berdan/AMERC

 

[osteodoc08]

Starline.

 

[ColtPythonElite]

Free

 

[horsemen61]

Starline for sure

 

[Arkansas Paul]

Whatever I pick up for free at the range.

 

[GJSchulze]

Keep the HS's that work best in your press. Unless a HS is universally disliked (like Amerc), you can't go by a few people's opinion because their press and guns are not the same as yours. I was not using S&B because they do have tight pockets, but I discovered that Federal primers are softer and fit quite easily. If I don't like a particular headstamp, but find it usable, I'll shoot it in places where getting my brass back is unlikely. Speer, Blazer, and FC causes the fewest stoppages on my press, so I like those. YMMV.

 

[ArchAngelCD]

I use all the name brand brass I can find and like said above, if it's A-Merc it's complete junk!

If you want to save only a few headstamps I would save Remington, Winchester and Federal. (they are most plentiful) There is nothing wrong with Speer, CCI, PMC, S&B, Fiocchi (GFL), Magtech (CBC) or Prvi Partizan (PPU) either but if you save it all you don't reduce the amount of brass you're keeping.

I think Starline is the only brass made by a manufacturer who doesn't also load ammo. Starline is probably the only new handgun brass I would purchase right now.

 

[cfullgraf]

For handgun, I buy name brand that is available. These days, that is mostly Starline. I bought some 32 ACP and 25 ACP recently and it is Magtech only because it was what was available.

AMERC is garbage and it gets trashed as quickly as I find it. I have had some problems working with some WCC 9x19 cases so I tend to scrap it when I find it in my stash.

i do not get range pick up these days because i shoot mostly out on my farm's "south 40".

For rifle, these days it is mostly W-W or Hornady. I afraid I am too cheap to buy Lapua although it is probably the best on the market.

I do buy some once fired 223 Remington cases but generally stick to single head stamp offerings.

 

[sexybeast]

Save it. Right now you may not be shooting in competitions but if you do you will be losing brass. It does not take up much room and just put a lid on it and keep it outside
As you load you can toss stuff you don't want. But now I would just save it for when you need it.
Its great for barter too. I've traded brass for bullets etc...

 

[Rule3]

Handguns? I use it all, makes no difference to me. Never find much A MERC, I di once and just recycled that.

Starline makes the brass for some of the major companies (some calibers)

 

[tightgroup tiger]

I would sort it out and keep what I had the largest quantity of. I've never noticed any problems with the 9mm range brass that I get except for the obscure brands that I don't get many of.

I throw them in a separate container and use them for lead or chump brass.

 

[gamestalker]

There are some head stamps that are considered to be less than ideal for reloading. But as for stuff I particularly like, it would have to be Starline, Win, RP, and ever FC that have worked well for me.

GS

 

[Nordeste]

Personally, I like Magtech, Fiocchi, Winchester and PMC. I don't like and tend to avoid Remington, since it looks like it doesn't prime as well as the others do.

If I have to choose one, I choose Fiocchi.